


lover, will you wait?

by snapdragonpop007



Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Angst and Feels, Hannibal Lecter Loves Will Graham, Heavy Drinking, Inspired by Hadestown, Miscommunication, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Will Graham Loves Hannibal Lecter, a little bit out of character, and by that I mean they don't talk at all, but not by much I promise, chapters are by songs, for thoes of you who know the musical
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:01:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22175212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snapdragonpop007/pseuds/snapdragonpop007
Summary: Jack looked at him. “Will, you don’t--you don’t have to go.”Will finished off the glass. He let the wine sit in his mouth for a moment, letting the last taste of summer sink into his skin before swallowing it. It tasted bitter going down.--or, I write a Hadestown hannigram au
Relationships: Ardelia Mapp/Clarice Starling, Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Comments: 3
Kudos: 35





	1. Road To Hell

**Author's Note:**

> our lovely cast of characters
> 
> Will - Persephone  
> Hannibal - Hades  
> Jack - Hermes  
> Clarice - Orpheus  
> Ardelia - Eurydice  
> Alana, Beverly, Bedelia - the fates

“He comes earlier every year.”

Will hummed. He took a long drag from his wine, only pulling the glass back when the train whistle stopped. “So he does.” 

Jack looked at him. “Will, you don’t--you don’t have to go.”

Will finished off the glass. He let the wine sit in his mouth for a moment, letting the last taste of summer sink into his skin before swallowing it. It tasted bitter going down.

He didn’t say anything to Jack. He didn’t even spare him a glance as he stood, setting the wine glass on the table and gripping his suitcase in hand. It was an old battered thing, falling apart at the seams. It had been a brighter color once, when he filled it with summer and spring instead of whiskey and dust. 

The train whistle sounded again. 

“Will--”

“Keep the place up for me, will ya?” Will didn’t want to talk about it--not to Jack, anyway. So he shouldered his suitcase and left the little house he stayed in and walked to the train station with a drag in his step. 

He could already feel the wind blowing in.

\--

“He’s going to leave? Just like that?” 

Clarice had seen Will leave, and she rushed over to the little house, hoping she had seen wrong. 

She hadn’t. She only found Jack, and no Will.

“Just like that.” Jack said.

Clarice frowned. She looked towards the train station from where she stood outside Will’s little house, where she saw the gray haze of the train itself, but no Will. Not that she could see him. She was much too far away for that. She wanted to ask Jack why he still left as she watched the train roll out, why he still went back when anyone who even looked at him could tell it killed him to do so.

“Do you think he’ll come back on time?” Clarice asked instead. 

“Maybe.” Jack was watching the train too. “It’s hard to say.” 

Clarice bit her cheek, but she couldn’t keep her outburst in. “I just don’t understand--” 

“He still loves him, Clarice. Gods just don’t stop loving each other.” Jack turned to look at her. “It’s why he keeps going back. And why he keeps Will for so long.” 

Clarice frowned. If Hannibal really loved Will, she thought, he would let him come back to the spring. 

A wind blew past them, rattling leaves and branches like old bones. 

\--

Hannibal was already waiting by the time Will reached the station. 

He looked as he always did. Suit perfectly pressed, hair styled to look artfully mussed, and smile small and pleasant. He wore his black suit, as he always did when it was time for Will to come home, the only color on him the red sweet willam he had in his lapel.

It made the red of Hannibal’s eyes stand out all the more, and it still made Will’s heart flutter.

“Miss me much?” Will asked. 

“I always do, my dear heart.” Hannibal took Will’s suitcase from him, stepping to the side as Will stepped onto the train. 

It was warmer in the train car than it was outside, which meant the chill of winter had already set in. Will bit his cheek and took in a breath, and the warmth and iron and salt in the air made his throat and lungs burn. 

“Give me that--” Will took his suitcase back, clicking it open and digging around until he found the bottle of whiskey he had stashed in between the dust and clothes. He took the cap off, taking a guzzle from the bottle and shrugging as Hannibal frowned at him. 

“If you could use a glass, please.” Hannibal waved one into his hand, handing it to Will as the train blew its whistle. 

Will debated not taking it. He debated walking to the little booth in the train car with his bottle and nursing it the entire train ride back. 

“Will--”

Will snatched it, pouring the glass full of whiskey as the train started to roll.

He didn’t spill a drop.


	2. Any Way the Wind Blows

Ardelia never stayed anywhere for very long. 

She went where the wind blew, because where the wind went a hope of warmth was sure to follow it. She had not known warmth for a long time. Many people had not known warmth for a long time.

What Ardelia and many other people knew was heat and cold, and never any in between.

There was no reason for this place to be any different. 

The town Ardelia found herself in was a small town, just on the edge of somewhere and nowhere. It was not unlike the other towns she had been too, it had its little general store and its motel and restaurant and the quaint aesthetic of a quaint little town. 

Spring had arrived again just as Ardelia arrived, although no one had quite known that yet. She stepped foot on the paved roads just as Will stepped back onto the earth after months of being away from it, and the world let out the breath it had been holding. 

“I’ll see you soon, Will.” 

“Not too soon, I hope.” Will accepted the kiss Hannibal pressed to his cheek, then stepped back with a smile. “I do have work to do.” 

Hannibal frowned. 

Will stepped forward, lifting a hand to cup the back of Hannibal’s neck as he pulled him in for a kiss. It was brief and closed mouth--nothing more than a peck, really--and when Will pulled back he pressed another kiss to Hannibal’s cheek and snuck a not yet bloomed sweet william behind his ear. 

“I love you, Hannibal.” Will mumbled.

“And I you, dear heart.” Hannibal caught Will’s hand before it fell, pressing a soft kiss to his palm. “I’ll see you in six months.”

“Six months.” Will repeated. 

He said it both as a reminder and a warning. 

The train whistle blew, and Will stepped back to let the door close. He lost sight of Hannibal as it did. The train rolled out right after, so Will had no chance to search him out in the windows and doors. 

“I see he brought you back.”

“Beverly.” Will tilted his head. “What brings you here?”

The woman standing next to him grinned, mouth wide and teeth sharp. Her gray clothing made her almost invisible in the winter landscape, but as the world came back to life around them she stood out like a sore thumb. “The girl is here.”

Will blinked, surprised. “Really?” 

Beverly hummed. She and the others went where Ardelia Mapp went. Not that Will knew that—no one but the three of them knew that. Beverly, Bedelia and Alana. The fates, the furies, the companions to death. 

“I assume the others are on their way, then?” Will adjusted his hold on his suitcase and started walking back towards town. 

He would love to meet this girl--finally learn her name.

Beverly fell into step beside him.

“Oh, they’re already here.” She said. “I just thought I’d come to greet you back to the world of the living.” 

“How thoughtful of you.”

The world bloomed around them, and summer came back to the world just as quickly as it had left it. 

\--

Ardelia would not have recognized the man if it were not for the flowers blooming in his hair. 

He was tall and gangly and he just looked tired. Exhausted, would be the word she would have used. 

And yet he had flowers in his hair, a light bounce in his step, a suitcase in hand and a warm breeze following him. Spring had come back and Summer was quickly following. 

She would be safe.

For a little while, anyway.

\--

“She’s arrived?”

Alana looked up as Bedelia entered.

They had taken residence in a little house not far from Will’s. They would only stay as long as Ardelia would, and then they would leave again to wherever the wind took them.

“That’s what Bev says.” Alana answered.

Bedelia hummed. “How tragic for her.” 

“Will is back as well.” 

Bedelia paused. She stood in the middle of the room, and she blinked slowly at Alana before looking out the window. She could see the smudge shadows of the railroad track, could hear the breeze blow and rustle dead leaves and branches.

The breeze was not nearly as warm as it had once been.

“How tragic for him.” Bedelia said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here come Ardelia woot woot

**Author's Note:**

> just a fair warning, I haven't actually seen the muscial. I've just obsessivly listened to the soundtrack, but I had an idea and it would not leave no matter how nicely I asked.
> 
> chapter length is also gonna hella vary, so please be patient with me on that one


End file.
